North Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - A new pilot program is underway in North Tonawanda, where traffic cameras are going up across the city. However, police say the purpose is not to issue tickets to drivers committing moving violations.
North Tonawanda Police Chief Keith Glass says two cameras will be placed in various locations and throughout the city.
"They're going to be moved, probably on a weekly basis, but all they do is collect data for us to analyze. So we can see speed violations, red light, stop signs, cell phones," said Glass in an interview with WBEN.
The traffic cameras will collect all this data so he can have a better idea of where problem areas are, and where police should be concentrating their traffic details to prevent accidents and aggressive driving.
Traffic is the No. 1 complaint in the city, according to Glass.
"We get more complaints about people recklessly driving than any other complaint. So we can utilize these cameras to determine yes, there is a problem in this area, or maybe just the opposite, no, there really isn't a problem in this area," Glass noted.
The data collected can help Glass use resources on a busier street where there are more issues and more accidents.
"We want to also look at different school zones too, because this all kind of stemmed from one of the crossing guards being struck several months ago," Glass added.
Glass emphasizes one thing about the program.
"These are not red light cameras, stop sign cameras, where they give out citations to violators. That is absolutely not what we're doing with these cameras," he said.
North Tonawanda Police are working with Obvio on the program. Dhruv Maheshwari says this will add to basic tools like patrols and checkpoints.
"Our goal was really to put together a product and set of tools, in addition to a community-based program that allows police departments to put these in school zones, other places where pedestrians are walking around, and just get a better sense of what are the real behaviors that are causing unsafe driving," said Maheshwari with WBEN.
Maheshwari says with this kind of data collected, you can not only pinpoint and target resources more effectively, but you can also create a culture of safety to help people be aware of the problem.
"Typically, the program is called 'Must Drive Safer', and we try to put together dashboards and collateral with it, with the hope that everyone sort of comes together to solve this problem. It's not fully dependent on an officer standing somewhere ready tickets," he explained.
Once the data is collected, Maheshwari says it will be put into a community portal available to the public.
The Batavia Police Department has also approached him for a similar program in the City of Batavia in Genesee County.